Dear Boonville,

I thoroughly enjoyed attending my first real-life movie premiere Saturday in Boonville.

Julie and I bought tickets to the 2:30 p.m. showing and stayed afterward to watch the red-carpet event with Connie Stevens unfold.

Being inside Thespian Hall reminded me of the time I went to see “Good Night, and Good Luck” at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts in Columbia.

It’s incredibly cool, I think, to experience a movie in a place that’s entirely foreign to today’s big-box theaters. That’s not at all a slam on theater chains; rather, it’s to say that movies can be appreciated and probably remembered for much longer if the atmosphere is right.

Both the Stevens movie and “Good Night, and Good Luck” are set decades in the past, and while their respective subject matters aren’t at all similar, viewing them in a place that has several decades of history behind it seems appropriate.

Also on Saturday, I enjoyed speaking with people in attendance, including several who told me they had been in Boonville during the flood of 1951.

The concept of a flood is pretty foreign to the Coloradan in me. But after seeing the film and speaking with people at the showings, I’m convinced that the flood of ‘51 wasn’t at all fun.

Rather, it was serious business.

I won’t give away much of the plot, but I will tell you that the movie depicts people in Boonville banding together to do whatever they could to dam up the flooding and prevent people’s property from being destroyed.

The people remained focused and determined, even in the face of tragedy, and the flooding ultimately ceased.

On Saturday, a similar banding together happened, though thankfully it was around a movie that highlights this city, a movie that depended upon many people from mid-Missouri for acting, props and more.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity, and I’m excited for those of you who were able to share in it.

Thanks for letting me be a part of it.

Nate Birt is news and online editor at the Boonville Daily News. He may be contacted at (660) 882-5335 or by e-mail at nate@boonvilledailynews.com.